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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Steel_Wind" data-source="post: 5196159" data-attributes="member: 20741">I guess the foreshadowing of the TPK points as much to the cause of the TPK as anything else.If a coming TPK can be seen before the encounter begins, that's a good sign not to run the encounter (in most cases) as originally conceived.But far more often, threats of a TPK surface during the encounter itself. Somebody makes a disastrous decision, or a couple of rolls go VERY badly coupled with a couple of enemy attacks that go very well. At lower levels, it ca be as simple as two ranged touch attacks miss  -- while two crits go back the other way and the party is suddenly in peril. At lower levels, given the less wiggle room the party has due to reduced hit points, the more easily that luck can be magnified and turn the tide quickly.I would agree that the faster the potential for an emergent TPK crystallizes before your eyes, the more likely the emerging potential for the TPK was due to unusally BAD luck. It can happen very fast when it's not the DM's fault. When it is the DM's fault? The signs for a TPK tend to be there well before someone rolls a 1 and some foe rolls a 20.Now that said, for luck to be the REAL culprit, it needs to be more than just one fumble and another well timed critical before you can blame an emerging TPK on plain bad luck. Luck, both good and bad, must be allowed for by any DM. Unusually BAD luck, otoh, is something that no DM can really account for in his or her plans. "Luck happens."</blockquote>

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